The present application is the U.S. National Stage Application of International Application PCT/AU99/00814, filed Sep. 24, 1999, which international application was published on Apr. 13, 2000 as International Publication WO 00/19846 in the English language. The International Application claims priority of Australian Application PP6282, filed Oct. 1, 1998.
This invention relates to hosiery, socks and similar garments and in particular relates to an improved footlet type sock adapted for concealment by a wearer""s footwear during use. The invention also relates to an improved knitting machine, method of operation and method of manufacture of said garment
Discreet footwear garments, where a small sock or stocking covering only the wearer""s foot region below the ankle, have become popular fashion accessories which allow a wearer to enjoy the benefits of foot protection but which become fully concealed once the wearer fits shoes or other footwear.
To date, such garments, known as footlets or socklets have been developed from sheer hosiery technology where the substantial flexibility of the medium allows a very generic or unshaped unit to fit all feet. Such items have been manufactured to date from the provision of an initial pattern or garment blank in the form of a short xe2x80x9ctubexe2x80x9d of sheer hosiery material which is closed at the bottom with a seam and provided with an elastic welt at the top to form an opening. In use, such garments are fitted by placing the user""s foot into the opening and pulling the unshaped garment over the foot so as to conform to the shape of the wearer""s foot by stretching. Such prior art garments suffer from numerous problems, in particular the bottom seam can be an irritation to the wearer and the lack of preshaping of the garment provides a less than ideal fit to any given wearer. Furthermore, such garments are exposed to high levels of material stress at the toe regions where the greatest elasticity and stretch occur.
In another form, similar prior art garments have been developed without a lower seam by providing an oval-shaped flat garment blank which has sowing fitted to its circumference causing the garment to pucker and draw up into a general shower cap shape. Whilst this method of manufacture provides a seamless garment which some advantages, the garment is still not shaped to conform in any way to the user""s foot and requires considerable stretching to fit with the resultant stresses and limited durability associated with the previously discussed garments.
In addition to the above limitations the currently available garments must, by necessity, be made of highly compliant materials to allow the user""s foot to stretch the garment into the correct shape. Accordingly, such garments are only made in a limited range of materials and the full potential of the garment has not been explored to date.
Accordingly, in one aspect the invention provides a sock type garment adapted for wearing on a wearer""s foot including a sole, a heel and a toe wherein said heel and toe are shaped to assist accommodation of the respective parts of the wearer""s foot characterised in that an opening for insertion of the wearer""s foot is provided intermediate of said heel and toe.
The regions of the heel and toe may be shaped into pockets. The garment may have a partial upper foot adjacent said sole.
The opening is preferably formed across the heel top, toe top and partial upper foot of said garment.
The opening may have a knitted hem or elastic means fitted to said heel top and said toe top to assist snug fitting of garment and finish off the heel top and toe top region. The heel may include a heel one section formed by a picking up stitch and a heel two section formed by alternate picking up and picking down stitch with the heel one and heel two section being seamlessly and continuously joined and separated by a picking line so formed.
The sole of the garment may be formed as a knitted continuum of the heel and leading to a knitted continuum with the toe.
The toe may include a toe one section formed by a picking up stitch and a toe two section formed by alternate picking up and picking down stitch with the toe one and toe two sections being seamlessly and continuously joined and separated by a picking line so formed.
The heel one section may be of sufficient size to substantially cover the wearer""s heel and the toe one section may be any size from a partial toe covering to a cover for the bulk of the wearer""s upper foot.
The garment may be constructed of a wide range of stitch form materials including hosiery materials used in the manufacture of stockings and pantyhose and/or knitting yarns, wool, cotton, nylon and any materials available for sock manufacture.
In another aspect, the invention provides a method of manufacturing a sock type garment including a sole, a heel and a toe region with an intermediate opening between said heel and toe region bordered by the top of the sole or partial upper foot and the heel top and toe top; the method including the use of a knitting machine to form the heel region of said garment beginning with the formation of the heel one section by pick up stitching then transferring to heel two section by alternate pick up and pick down stitching, the sole of the garment and partial upper foot are then formed followed by alternate pick up and pick down stitching to form the toe two section then transferring to the toe one section by pick up stitching only. The garment may be finished by a knitted and shaped elastic edge or ridge over the heel top, toe top and the top of the sole or upper foot. The elastic ridge may be formed with transfer needle selection only to achieve the elastic ridge. The machine dial transfer need not be used.
The sock type garment can alternatively be manufactured beginning at the toe region and moving to the heel region.
The method of manufacture may begin with the preparation of an elastic braid forming the toe top. The toe one part of the garment is formed with the knitting machine back pickers in action and by selective cancellation thereof so as to form the required number of pick up stitches with a progressive decrease taking one needle per side off every second course. When the toe one is completed the knitting machine front pickers come into action selectively returning needles held in memory, so called pick down stitches, providing an alternate preparation of stitching progressively adding courses until the toe region is formed. The unique ability to progressively control the back and front pickers by cancellation allows the method of manufacture to produce a fully formed one piece seamless garment without interruption in one continuous operation. Once the toe region is formed the pickers can be cancelled without interference to the pre-programmning of the needles and the partial upper foot and sole of the garment can be formed as a direct continuation of the toe region. The foot region can be made as long as required then the heel region is ready to be formed. The back pickers are bought into action to selectively place needles into memory, so called pick up stitches, providing a series of stitches with a progressive drop in stitches toward the heel, the front picker then begins to add on stitches to form progressive pickup stitching so as to form a seamless heel region. The heel is then completed by forming an elastic ridge.
In another aspect the invention provides a modified knitting machine including a mounted rotatable cylinder having a series of closely spaced needles located in annular slots said machine being provided with needle operating cams, two back pickers for placing selected needles into memory and at least one front picker for returning needles from memory characterised in having cancellation means to selectively cancel the function of said back picker and/or said front picker within a given cycle.
The back pickers may be provided in left or right configuration to cooperate with the alternate counter clockwise and clockwise rotation of said cylinder. The back cancellation means may act on either or both back pickers and preferably acts in lifting the picker needle arm away from interaction with said needle. The front cancellation means may act by lowering the picker needle arm away from interaction with said needle.
The cancellation means may be activated by a programmable switching means which comprises microswitches operable from a cam or other means. The microswitches, or a mechanical equivalent, activate air cylinders or the like which cooperate with a mechanical means to operate the cancellation means. The inclusion of such a cancellation means allows the pre-programmed operation of the back and front pickers to be interrupted at will without interfering with the needles. In this manner a selected number of needles can be held in memory for instant recall without interfering with the knitting thereby providing greatly extended modes of operation of a knitting machine. In order to assist the continuous operation of the machine the cylinder 20 is provided with a number of xe2x80x9cdummyxe2x80x9d needles being non functioning needles placed into the cylinder but which have been modified by removal of the hook end thereof.
The modified knitting machine is particularly adapted for manufacture of the improved footwear garment as described and claimed in the current application. In particular the modified machine allows the production of a seamless garment moving from a fully formed toe region to an extended seamless sole and partial upper foot and then into a fully formed heel region in one continuous operation.